FRENCH police cleared out, then bulldozed, a squalid forest camp near the northern city of Calais yesterday, detaining hundreds of illegal immigrants who had hoped to slip across the English Channel into Britain.

The threat of terrorism on French soil is real because there are networks in place, the head of the country’s domestic intelligence agency said today.

AN Iranian opposition group under scrutiny in France planned to assassinate former members suspected of betraying the movement, according to a report by France’s counterintelligence agency.

Teams of trained Islamic extremists who escaped the US led war in Afghanistan are hiding in Europe, ready “to hit at the chosen moment,” the head of France’s counter-espionage service said today.